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tv   Jansing and Co.  MSNBC  June 11, 2012 7:00am-8:00am PDT

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i'm chris jansing. this morning. both campaigns are outswinging with brand-new videos attacking each other over, yes, the economy. after barack obama said the economy was fine and mitt romney said, we don't need more firemen, policemen or teachers. >> he says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. did he not get the message of wisconsin? the american people did. it's time for us to cut back on government and help the american people. >> overall here, on nowhere to hide, given this report. >> the private sector is doing fine. where we're seeing weaknesses in
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our economy have to do with state and local government. the private sector is doing fine. >> so obviously these videos are trying to use the candidates' remarks against them. but they do cut to the core of one of the most important debates for this country t right now. how would both of these men grow the economy? what's their philosophy? it's very clear. i want to bring in jackie kucinich and richard wolf. does the president really believe the private sector is doing just fine and does mitt romney want to have fewer teachers, firefighters, policemen? >> i think the thing with these comments is they reiterate what the other campaign is trying to paint the other person as. that's why these are catching on because exactly the picture that they want to paint is painted by these comments. that's why they're hitting the dvr and making these into ads
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like that. >> take it out of context but whatever you want to do with it, you need to do wit. richard, do these comments hurt or what's your take on them? >> yeah, they hurt. but they're not taking into account the bigger narrative going on here, which is how do people feel about these individuals as leaders, their leadership qualities and whether they have a credible plan for the economy and how do they feel about the economy right now? there are hiring and firing decisions anytime you get into a redirect. the electorate are opening the door to firing the president. and they haven't fully opened the door to hiring the other guy. we're in the middle ground where small things get blown up into bigger questions. but most people aren't going to pay attention to one day's gaffe or one week's gaffe. >> david axelrod said the president obviously didn't mean the private sector is doing fine. he brought it back to what he says is a clear difference between these two candidates. take a listen.
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>> there's a very clear distinction because the president believes we need to bring down the deficits while we invest in the things to make our economy grow -- education, research and development and innovation. governor romney wants to go back to what we did before, large budget busting tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulating wall street. >> this is not in many ways just an arbitrary argument even though these comments may not be used the way they were intended. but it goes back to the fact that the president believes that government spending can indeed help the economy and the republicans and mitt romney say, no, that's the worst thing you could possibly do is pump more government money into government. >> oh, yeah. that's what we're going to be debating this entire time. it's like, settle in because we're going to be talking about this until november. i disagree, i think some of these comments do matter because they're not finite anymore. it's not like they happen and they stop.
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we're going to see replays of these comments during the presidential debates. they're going to stick around this year. i just believe that. >> they're both going to be called to account potentially over and over again. mitch daniels said even though he looked at this and obviously a lot of republicans were looking at the president's comments and saying, this is good fodder for us, mitch daniels says, don't get too comfortable yet, there's a lot more work for mitt romney to do. here he was. >> the american people, i think, will rightly demand to know something more than he's not president obama. he better have an affirmative, constructive message and one of hope. >> there are a number of republicans saying that because you do sort of sense over the last week or so that maybe the momentum and the narrative have been going mitt romney's way. but is mitch daniels right? >> absolutely he's right. governor romney's plan right now is what he expressed, which is
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that cutting public sector jobs is going to help the economy overall. he has not sold that really. he has not made that case in any convincing way because people know if you cut jobs, that leads to a reduction in employment. and what people care most about right now isn't the deficit, it's jobs. he hasn't closed that circle in any meaningful way and what he's been much more effective on is attacking the other side. just as chicago has been much or effective about attacking the other side than it has about making its own case. both sides need to convince voters about their plans. >> i want to bring in a former new hampshire governor. governor, good to see you. the obama campaign using the comments were made obviously by mitt romney on friday that we don't need more firefighters, more police. let me play for you what scott walker had to say about that. >> the answer is not more big government. i know in my state, our reforms allowed us to protect
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firefighters, policemen and teachers. i think the bigger sense is more government regulations, more stimulus, more things that take money out of the private sector and put it in the hands of the government. >> do you agree with that and do you think that there's a better way that mitt romney could have made his point than to single out firefighters, police officers and teachers? >> let me respond as a taxpayer, not as a representative of the romney campaign. there are municipalities, there are states where there is flight of population. and as the population goes down, you need fewer teachers. as technology contributes to community security and dealing with issues that firefighters have to deal with, you would hope that you can, as a taxpayer, see the benefits of the efficiency and personnel that you get out of that. so -- >> but even if there's movement to the suburbs, teachers and policemen are needed somewhere. >> but i'm going to tell you there are places where just
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pumping money in to add to the public payroll is not what the taxpayers of this country want. >> do you think that taxpayers of this country want to hear fewer firefighters, fewer teachers, fewer police officers, from a strategic standpoint? >> if there's fewer kids in the classrooms, the taxpayers really do want to hear there will be fewer teachers. >> but that's a very geographically specific argument, isn't it? >> well, you have a lot of places where that is happening. you have a very mobile country now where things are changing. you have cities in this country in which the school population peaked ten, 15 years ago. and, yet the number of teachers that may have maintained has not changed. i think this is a real issue. and people ought to stop jumping on it as a gaffe and understand there's wisdom in the comment. >> a lot of this does go back to wisconsin and the recall effort and obviously the fight over unions. but do you think there's a chance of republicans overplaying that message?
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>> i think there's a chance that republicans are going to emphasize the failings of this administration across the board and the problems of finding jobs. it is a jobs issue in america. and the reason we have a jobs problem is that the private sector in america today is sitting on more cash than it ever had, petrified that obama will be reelected. the minute they see that that is not going to happen, you're going to see them investing in the equipment, the machinery and the hiring that will restore the private sector's strength in jobs. >> let me ask you about the big picture of this election. and the criticism, you just heard it from richard and it's come from a lot of strategists on both sides of the aisle. these two candidates have done a lot of going after each other but have they laid out their own plans well enough. do you think mitt romney has done a sufficient job? has he made his case to the american people?
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>> i think the people that have had a chance to see and hear mitt romney have understood it. obviously he's got to make himself known to more of the country than he is known in. that's what the campaign is all about. but he's laid out a process of tax reform. he's laid out a process of investing in america. he's laid out a process of renewing our national security strength and laid out a process of saying that you don't stifle the private sector with overregulation and overtaxing and expect jobs to be created. and he's laid out an agenda to undo the mess that we found ourselves in over the last 3 1/2 years. >> governor, it is good to see you. thank you very much for being with us. richard, let me bring you back in and read to you what was written in "the washington post" today, quote, why don't democrats just say it? they really believe in active government and think it does good and valuable things. one of those valuable things is that government creates jobs. yes, really, and also the conditions under which more jobs can be created.
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what do you think of that? >> well, government jobs are not the end goal here. stimulus spending used to be something that democrats and republicans believed in and supported. the bush tax cuts were first introduced under the argument of a stimulus, after the internet bubble burst. so whether it's tax cuts that put money in people's pockets temporarily or permanently, or it's government spending -- everybody's talking about the same thing which is stimulus. the idea that mitt romney's comments were as if he was taking to a nation of detroits that were all in decline is plainly ridiculous. as president, you have to talk about the whole country. but he did something important about the private sector. big companies are sitting on giant amounts of cash. they're not spending that money because they're worried about the obama reelection campaign. they're not spending that money because they're still worried about the banking system.
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that's where the fear lies. and anyone who professors to know about the private sector augtd to admit that. >> do you think that these arguments, as economically sound as they may be about the banking sector, about europe and this press conference on friday, the president spoke more than he's spoken about the eurozone crisis previously. is that too tough to sell? is that a tough sell for the average american? is it just, frankly, we sit back and say, how much money is in our 401(k) and how worried am i about my job and can my kid get a job out of college? >> i think it is tough because it's about what your community is doing. it's hard to see that larger picture when you're worried about what's going to happen tomorrow, what's going to happen next week, how are you going to send your kids to college? it's a tough sell. and what's going on -- i think that these plans need to come out and both romney and obama need to make that case. >> jackie kucinich, great to have you. richard, feel free to come visit
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us anytime. in the past hour, we want to update you. a spokesperson for commerce secretary john bryson that he suffered a seizure at the time of that hit-and-run incident he was involved in in california this weekend. police say bryson hit one car at a railroad crossing twice and then just minutes later, he hit another car. he was hospitalized after police found him unconscious at the wheel. preliminary tests show no drugs or alcohol were involved. fortunately no one was seriously hurt. with the spark cash card from capital one,
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a new $4 million ad campaign has launched targeting the latino vote in pre-battleground states. a labor union and a pro-obama super pac are behind the spanish language ads, focusing on mitt romney's economic stand. romney is getting some help from
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his newly formed group. the team has already produced videos saying the economy hurt latinos disproportionately. richard lui is here. as many as 22 million latinos could be in play. huge in key states. >> big numbers. and will they go to the polls? the latino population has grown over 40% from 2000 to 2010. but the number of latinos voting has grown at almost double that rate. in 2008, close to 10 million voted. this year, an estimated 12 million latinos could vote. that would double 2000's turnout. where the latino vote counts most, toss-up states. look at the top five. mathematically they could handle swing states, that is if they
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register and make to it the polls. here's the big challenge for democrats. latino decision says in nevada, for example, only 42% of eligible latino voters have registered so far. virginia, 35%. and in 2008, only half of eligible latinos showed up on election day. far less than black or white voters. impeding today's turnout, critics point to voter registration laws and voter purges that remove eligible citizens. in florida, the tide may be turning. a federal judge halted parts of a 2011 law restricting the efforts and now the league of voters have restarted their registration drives. in north carolina, registration efforts have paid off there. north carolina has already seen its latino voter registration double 2008's. on balance, while latinos have not been happy with policies on deportations and path to citizenship under the president's watch, governor romney trails. a new latino decision polls
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shows the president leads nationally by 66% to 23% of latinos. >> thank you, richard. coming up, we'll have a latino pollster who will talk to us to put some of those numbers in perspective. also ahead, dinner at the white house. wait till you hear who's invited. and a new fight over the minimum wage. how some democrats are hoping to use the battle to win over voters. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me!
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>> sure thing. what we found is that as latino registration numbers are steadily increasing, they're still slow. there are a number of states outside the traditional states where the latino vote can influence the outcome of this election. that's what we're looking at in our interactive map. users can increase or decrease the latino vote or increase or decrease the vote for obama and show how the states will change. states will flip from leaning blue to leaning red. you'll see just how important the latino vote can be in a number of states across the country this year. >> give us an idea of some of the states might not expect. we always talking about florida and places like new mexico and arizona. what are some of the places that people might be surprised where a loatino vote could make a difference this year? >> sure. the latino population and registered voters has been growing in states like virginia,
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north carolina, ohio, indiana, maybe even pennsylvania these are states sort of southeast and rust belt states where the latino population is growing very fast. and there's been tremendous efforts by different latino registration groups to increase that civic participation and bring more latinos on board. the polls are showing that a lot of those states are very, very close, neck and neck. so even states where latinos are only 3% or 4% of the electorate, that might swing the election. >> because as we saw in richard lui's piece, the most recent polling show that is latinos overwhelmingly support barack obama. the latest polls, 66% to 23%. what's behind those numbers? >> i think what you've seen is that romney has nod had an ability to make that personal connection. he hasn't been able to sell something specifically to latinos that they feel comfortable with. so when he talks about repealing the health care bill on day one, we find regularly in our polling that latinos were very supportive of the health care bill and health care reform.
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hef the highest rates of being uninsured. and romney had to go far right on the immigration issue. he's trying to backpedal from that now. but that caused a lot of damage. those statements have really resonated with latinos in a negative light. i think it's the case more right now not that obama's doing anything spectacular but rather romney just hasn't been able to get a foothold at all. >> i guess the big question, then, for the obama campaign is why aren't more latinos registering and voting? >> i think voter registration is the big $64,000 question for latinos. we really need to see an increase in that. back in 2008, you saw the obama campaign do record registration. we hadn't seen that before from a presidential campaign. a big question is whether they'll continue that. one of the factors affecting latino votes is they have a lower level of confidence in government, not only did you talk about the record deportations but the economy
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continues to affect latinos very negatively. and it's not clear right now that either of the two parties are going out of their way to court or to produce for latino voters. there's a lot of bickering right now. i think latinos are looking at the situation and saying, what's the incentive? and the parties need to do that outreach. they need to make that connection and then you will see latino voter registration and participation increase. but we haven't seen that yet, that full-court press from either of the political parties. >> matt, great to see you. thank you. in "politics now," the pro-president obama super pac is once again attacking mitt romney over his time at bain capital. >> romney and bain capital shut this place down. they shut down entire livelihoods. they promised us a health care package. they promised to maintain our retirement program. and those are the first two things that disappeared. >> the romney campaign dismisses this as another misleading ad.
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former president george h.w. bush spent the weekend in maine at a ceremony for the navy's newest aircraft carrier named for him. tomorrow will be his 88th birthday. on thursday, a new documentary called "41" will be released. he hasn't released a memoir and doesn't plan to. and 50 lucky kids will head to the white house in august for the kids' version of a white house state dinner. to win, children ages 8 to 12 have to submit a healthy lunch recipe and they'll pick one from each state. if you know someone who would like to enter, you can find the information on our facebook page. and a reason lack of sleep is hurting all of us, a new study shows getting less than six hours a night significantly increases your chance of having a stroke. that's from "usa today." get all the details on our facebook page. es more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way
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this morning, there's new vice presidential buzz surrounding marco rubio. the florida senator, the overwhelming favorite of conservatives in a new cpac straw poll. but the romney camp is vetting its list, mindful of what happened the last time around when then little-known alaskan governor, sarah palin, joined the ticket. gentlemen, good morning. >> good morning. >> michael, i want to start with you. how much do you think the specter of sarah palin is hanging over this election process in 2012? >> i'm probably in the minority. i don't think sarah palin was the disaster that other people think. i think she motivated a sector of the voter that is john mccain hadn't motivated before. but clearly the process is what people think about with sarah palin, whether it was rushed or not. and that's what's going on right
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now. mitt romney started, i think, much earlier. that's going to clearly benefit him. they have a lot of good people to look at. but in the end, i don't think -- media will talk about the comparison with sarah palin. but beyond that, i don't think voters care much. >> let's talk about some of the hot prospects, so to speak. we said at cpac, 30% picked marco rubio. chris christie was far behind. what's the pros and cons here? >> what i found most significant coming out of that straw poll were the reasons given by the conservatives polled. and the number one reason with 32% was marco rubio has the best conservative values. now, taken to its sort of logical conclusion, what that means is if candidate romney were to listen to this part of the republican party and pick a candidate who had the most conservative values, what he's doing is he's pulling himself much further to the right at a time when i believe the romney
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campaign is trying to argue to the american people that he's a centrist, that he's mainstream. so once again, i detect within the republican party a kind of tug of war between the conservatives who want a purist and someone pulling further to the right. and let's call them the pragmatists who just want to win the electoral map with the candidate who would get the most votes. >> let's talk about another conservative, unlike many republicans who try to play down questions about possible consideration, senator rand paul said it would be an honor to run with romney. do you think he's getting serious consideration? >> i think he would get consideration. but one thing is clear. this is not going to be a pick that the republican party, the activist conservatives make. this is a pick that mitt romney will do and he will do alone. and the qualifications of that person and probably as importantly if not more importantly will be the connection and the chemistry between those two people. it's critical, especially with someone like mitt romney.
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>> in that room, it's the gut reaction of mitt romney? >> no doubt about it. conservative credentials here, moderate credentials there, what part of the country they come from isn't going to matter. >> john thune is said to be on romney's short list. pros and cons there? >> i had the honor of meeting senator thune. i think he's a very likable fellow. i think he's a very compelling candidate. i also think he's very far to the right on the scale of the political spectrum. but, again, i agree with my republican colleague here. what the veepstakes gives us is the inside into the decision making of choosing a vice president. it says more about the candidate at the top of the ticket and how they make a decision and why. than it does about the person who would get the vice presidential slot. and that's what's so important
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about it. so will mitt romney be pulled to the right by his right wing faction? will he decide from the gut, as i think john mccain did? that's really the insight we get out of this process. >> and i think there's also some interesting debate going on about timing, as yurngs michael, because there have been some reports that mitt romney is going to make the decision next month, well ahead of the convention. would that be a good idea frshgs your perspective? >> i don't think it would hurt him to do it before the convention. but the energy of the convention is what you want to capitalize on when you are making a pick. there's other names being floated about. one name being talked about most recently is tim pawlenty. one of the things we think about with mitt romney is he's not particularly risk averse. a safe pick would be good for him. tim pawlenty's been vetted as a presidential candidate. i think he's someone they're seriously considering, looking closely at and someone that would be a great pick, fire up
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the convention and really hit obama and biden head-on. >> michael and david, terrific conversation. thanks, guys. >> thank you. this month is the 100th anniversary of the first minimum wij law. and there's a new push to raise the new minimum wage. about two dozen liberal democrats want it upped to $10. so far, no backing from democratic leadership. but it could become a debate in an election that is all about the economy. i'm joined now by msnbc contributor jared bernstein. good to see you, jared, good morning. >> thank you, chris. good to see you. >> what's the argument for raising the minimum wage and why do you think democratic leaders are staying away from it? >> well, the first part of your question, one of the things we know is a significant problem in our economy is that folks at the lower end of the pay or the income scale simply haven't been brought along with an economic recovery that's technically been
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ongoing now for a couple of years. and if you go back further to the last expansion, over the years of the 2000s, same thing. and that's the well-known problem of economic inequality. one of the problems that low-wage workers have is they just don't have a lot of bargaining power. so it's very tough for them to claim their fair share of the growing economy and a higher wage floor helps them in that regard. >> here's what republicans argued. the vast majority of people who are hired on the minimum wage, by one accounting, at least two-thirds, get a raise within one to 12 months. they say that the -- very few people get stuck at the minimum wage. in fact, increases are sort of built into those kinds of jobs. >> yeah, i don't necessarily disagree. the problem is the magnitude of that raise. if inflation is running at 2% to 3%, which it's been and your raise is 1%, .5%, you're still losing ground in real terms.
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people have to realize the minimum wage is not adjusted for inflation nationally. there's a couple of states that have adopted that. so it's losing value all the time. >> and there's also this concern -- and i know you've heard it -- that raising the minimum wage will hurt small business. is that the main talking point you hear from the republicans, that then they'll curtail hiring? do you think that's true? >> i don't think so. earlier you asked why other democratic leaders may be shying away from the debate at this point. that may have something to do with it. and it makes sense, the idea that if you raise the price of something, it's reasonable to wonder whether people will shy away from that, in this case, low-wage workers. but, it's an empirical question. you have to go to the literature, look at the evidence because we've raids minimum wages many times. we've had lots of natural experiments across the states where they've raised their minimum wages and we've not found that kind of effect.
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it's just de minimis. it doesn't show up in the research. and there's reasons for that. one is that the wage tends to get so low that it just doesn't have that much bite. >> could it have the opposite effect? and this argument is being made by jesse jackson and others in the progressive caucus. if you give people a raise, maybe from $7.25 to $10 an hour, that their purchasing power increases to the effect that it actually really stimulates the economy. it's that significant. >> i don't think there's any question that that's a true effect. for one thing -- by the way, just to be clear, typically these kinds of increases phase in over a number of years. talking about going to $7.25 to $10 usually over a few years. but if people have more buying power and we're talking about low income people who tend to spend their earnings. they're not going to necessarily save much of it. it tends to stimulate buying in
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their communities. that has the kind of effects that can help. in that sense, it would help promote growth beyond just the increase itself. >> jared bernstein, always great to have you on the program. thank you. after turning in their best week of the year, stocks are hoping for a repeat thanks to a big bailout for spanish banks. mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. what has wall street so encouraged? >> reporter: chris, we've really lost a lot of that initial pop that we had this morning. and i think the problem is there are reasons to be both encouraged and discouraged. europe has taken action on this preemptively and not waited for the rest of the spanish bank stress test. . but the market is really skeptical because this bailout doesn't do anything to fix the structural problems in europe or contain the debt crisis there. also the market has a habit of moving real quick to the next focus and you know what that is.
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on june 17th, this sunday, the greek elections. that will decide pretty much whether or not greece is going to stay or leave the eurozone. so as i say, a little bit of skepticism coming back into the market now about this. >> and we have a winner. you and i talked about this auction last week. who's having power lunch with billionaire warren buffett? >> reporter: unidentified but someone with nearly $3.5 million, which was the -- >> $3.5 million for lunch? >> reporter: yep. that's what it cost. it was a last-minute flurry of active in this online charity auction. and it set a record for the third straight year. it got 106 bids in total. the auction benefits the glide foundation that helps homeless people in san francisco. and buffett has been a real friend of that charity. he's raised over $14 million for them over the years. the winner and seven companions get to dine with buffett at the smith and wolinski steakhouse
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here in new york city. >> mandy, thank you. opening statements are under way right now in the jerry sandusky child sex abuse trial. experts say the case may well turn on the testimony of eight witnesses who say they were molested by the former penn state coach. sandusky's lawyer has signal that had he will hammer away at the credibility of those witnesses. there are 52 counts against sandusky involving ten minors. sandusky is now 68 years old. police in alabama are searching for this man who they say killed three people and wounded three others near auburn universities. investigators believe desmonte leonard opened fire at a pool party after allegedly getting into a fight over a woman. two of the killed were former auburn football players. police say leonard fled the scene. a neighbor turned in this video allegedly showing anthony
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sanchez repeatedly hitting his stepson with a belt for dropping a ball while playing catch. no official charges have been filed. fires and floods are plaguing several parts of the country today. take a look at what's going on in colorado. more than 250 firefighters battling an almost 37,000-acre wildfire with 18 buildings destroyed already. hundreds of other homes in the path. meantime, in the southeast, too much rain. floodwaters has heavy rain threatens a repeat of weekend storms that damaged homes and spawned at least one tornado. think you're feeding kids supposedly healthy fast-food? there's a list of the five worst kids meals. ready? the chick-fil-a grilled chicken nuggets as as much cholesterol has a big mac. mcdonald's cheeseburger happy meal. sonic kids' jr. burger meal,
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more sugar than two twinkies. burger king's hamburger kids meal has as much cholesterol as six slices of bacon. and denny's build your own jr. grand slam. unner,marathon r in absolute perfect physical condition and i had a heart attack right out of the clear blue... he was just... "get me an aspirin"... yeah... i knew that i was doing the right thing, when i gave him the bayer. i'm on an aspirin regimen... and i take bayer chewables. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. so he's a success story... [ laughs ] he's my success story. [ male announcer ] learn how to protect your heart at i am proheart on facebook. with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen.
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new attacks from the white house this morning over accusations that they orchestrated a series of national security leaks to boost the president's profile. here's campaign adviser david axelrod. >> i don't know where that came from, charlie. the last thing that he would want, the last thing anyone in the white house wants is to do anything that would jeopardize those missions or jeopardize those americans. he's has outraged about it as anybody. >> attorney general eric holder has appointed two federal prosecutors to investigate the leaks. but senator john mccain wants a
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special council to investigate. the alleged leaks involve assignments of cyber attacks in iran, president obama's kill list and the raid that killed osama bin laden. greg, let me ask you a political question, first. what do the president's critics think they're going to get out of this? >> what they're getting already is calling attention to this idea that obama is using national security secrets to position himself for the election this year. and so for republicans on the hill, for senator mccain and others, that has actually gotten some traction and put the white house on the defensive. >> it is, we should say, just republicans worried about the leaks. senator dianne feinstein was concerned about the impact, among others. what's the concern?
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how serious are the leaks? >> some of them are mainly just sort of descriptions of how the president has been personally involved in making decisions on kill lists and things like that. that's not a national security secret that's going to put a cia operative or a soldier in harm's way. but there have been a lot of other details that have come out over the last year and a half on the bin laden raid, on the use of stealth drones, on different kinds of technologies and different kinds of operations. and you could argue that that has sort of compromised sources and methods, which is what intelligence officials always talk about. >> this administration, though, does have a pretty impressive record at investigating leaks, doesn't it? >> yeah. that's one of the ironies here. this is the administration that has by far been more aggressive than any other. it's brought at least six leaks-related prosecutions, more than all of its predecessors
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combined. but the difference is -- and critics will say many of those prosecutions have gone at low-level figures and have never gone inside the white house or senior officials in the administration. they've gone after report ersz and lower-level figures. these are not the big leaks that sort of make officials at the white house or the president himself look good. >> how tough is it for an investigator to track down the source of an intelligence leak? >> the record shows it's pretty difficult. these leaks prosecutions and investigations rarely about to much in the end. these stories have often multiple sources. it's gotten easier for prosecutors and investigators partly because technology -- where it used to be these transactions took place over a phone or in a parking garage. now they might involve e-mail exchanges. and the government can often obtain those records and try to put together or reconstruct the
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communications between a reporter and a source. >> having said that, i think it would surprise a lot of people that not all these leaks are against the law. sit sort of pr is it sort of predicated on what would potential impact or harm could be? >> the law is difficult to stand because it's an old one. these leaks prosecutions rely on a 1917 statute that puts the burden on the government to show that the leaker shared information that would harm national defense and knew that it would harm national defense when doing so. that's a pretty high standard. >> it is a fascinating story. you've been doing great reporting on this story. thank you so much. our good friend over at abc, robin roberts made a stunning announcement this morning. after beating breast cancer five years ago, roberts told viewers she has been diagnosed with mds, a blood and bone marrow disease. he will receive a transplant from her sister.
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here's george's tweet. all our love and prayers are with robin roberts. she'll beat this. bengay zero . medicated pain relief you store in the freezer. brrr...see ya boys. [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. new venus & olay. olay moisture bars help lock in moisture... while five blades get venus close. revealing smooth and goddess skin begins. only from venus & olay. we make meeting times, lunch times and conference times. but what we'd rather be making are tee times.
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good morning. i'm thomas roberts. next hour, the gaffe police on high alert on both sides after the president says the private sector is doing fine, when compared to that of the public sector. how both the left and the right are mincing words when it comes to our economy. jeb bush goes on tv again this morning say he isn't in the run for mitt romney's veepstakes. who maybe ready to accept that nod? and the sexual abuse trial of former penn state football coach jerry sandusky beginning this morning this pennsylvania we bring you an report. let's go down to the wire. lady gaga is recovering from a concussion after a back-up dancer accidentally hit her on the head with a pole in new zealand.
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the video was posted by a fan on youtube. she finished the show. another 16 songs. one of hollywood's hottest leading men is officially off the market. matthew mcconaughey married his girlfriend in texas over the weekend. and tomato fight, for more than two hours yesterday, 20,000 people tossed 15 tons of tomatoes at each other in a colombian town. the tomatoes were all not appropriate to be sold on the open market. what a mess. you want to have the bleach franchise right there. a survival story for a family of ducks on a washington state highway. first a police officer gives them an escort. then he moves on, a good samaritan comes in. this guy actually picks up some of the ducklings and puts them in his car. others step in after a brief chase. i know you want to know this. all the ducks are safe. that wraps up this hour of
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"jansing & co." i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next. see you back here tomorrow. ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman.
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and sea food differently. good morning, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. topping the agenda this morning, breaking news from california that's being closely monitored by the white house. commerce secretary john bryson out of the hospital now, release this had morning after he was involved in several hit-and-run car crashes in l.a. the commerce department just releasing a statement a short time ago saying the secretary suffered a seizure that then led to this series of accidents. now, the cabinet member is accused of rear-ending a car in san gabriel, hitting it once before moving and leaving the scene. police say he hit another car five minutes later. then he was found unconscious behind the wheel at the accident scene taken to the hospital this weekend. nbc's kristen welker is live at the white house for us. kristen, explain what they are plaming about the seizure, how they're saying this could have happened and the secretary and

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